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Legend of Korra: PANIC!!!! Episode 4 Is Uploaded!!!!

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The Fire Nation is a monarchy. Power is inherited with firstborn sons taking priority. Since bending is partially genetic, that means a lot of the Royal Family will be benders. Nothing says bending is a requirement for the throne. Hell, we don't even know if Lu Ten was a bender or not.

Yeah, actually. The avatar is highly respected, and not just cause she can shoot rocks and fireballs.

What are the Equalists if not a glorified chi-blocking gang?

We have seen no economic imbalance between benders and non-benders. We've seen plenty of rich non-benders and poor benders, and the other way around. We have seen high-ranking military non-benders. Everybody seemed to have worked this stuff out until Amon decided there was a problem.

I believe everybody else has shown that the position of Firelord requires/required being a Firebender.

He might be wrong (he's the villain after all!), but he's not entirely wrong. Like any charismatic leader before him he's exploiting an already existing schism to his advantage. There's a fancy word of that in political science (the part that describes how political parties rise and fall). I just can't remember it.

Honestly. I think the more interesting option is if Amon is right. Well intentioned extremists are the best extremists (but still villains). It also makes sense given the context. This is after all the Avatar version of the 1920s, a politically turbulent time (which in the real world featured commies and various fascist groups as the most prominent sources for political unrest).

If his viewpoint could be shot down by pointing to a bunch of obvious examples (Which you have mainly come up with by saying "Well you can't say for sure that they ARE benders") it's not going to be very interesting.

Apart from the exception that is Sato there really is a lot of Bender Privelege, which is different from oppression.

If his viewpoint could be shot down by pointing to a bunch of obvious examples (Which you have mainly come up with by saying "Well you can't say for sure that they ARE benders") it's not going to be very interesting.

Apart from the exception that is Sato there really is a lot of Bender Privelege, which is different from oppression.

2/3 of the extant nations in the first series were led by non-benders. There were tons of non-bending characters on equal footing with other benders. The entire Southern Tribe including Sokka with the sole exception of Katara, Northern Chief, Earth King, Yu Yan Archers, Kyoshi Warriors including Suki, Ty Lee, Mai, Li and Lo, Zuko's mom, Piandao, Jet and his gang, Toph's parents, June, Mechanist and his followers, etc. etc.

Saying that benders are doing this dirty job for Non-benders (is it ever stated the power stations are owned by non-benders, if you're thinking about Sato all I can find on him says he is all about the cars) proves that that there is no disparity is really silly.

Every job exclusively done by benders, no matter how dangerous or tedious, means an entire profession that non-benders are completely cut off from.

Is saying that a lot of cool characters from the last series were non-benders like saying I'm not racist because I have black friends

Or that racism is over because we have a black president

actually my argument is that bender-ism never existed in the first place

Amon made it up

But you're basing that on a handful of people out of an entire world population?

At best he made it up the same way we have things like the myth of the welfare queen, or conspiracy theories about secret Muslims/Communists/whatever trying to take over the country

But given the crowd at that rally, a lot of people certainly think there is a problem

It's not unreasonable to think that stratification has intensified in the past decades

the bolded would be fair if there were stronger examples of "bender privilege" that weren't just inferences

we're still early in Korra so maybe Amon's argument will be supported later on, but so far benders and non-benders seem to get along as well as they did in Avatar, and exist along varied socioeconomic lines just like they did in Avatar

charismatic people have gotten supporters for bad ideas plenty of times in history, so I don't think the crowd alone is a good support for Amon's argument. If he was right, we'd see more non/bender conflict outside of Equalist fights. guys losing their jobs to benders and such. again, might happen later in the series.

I'm thinking there has been a growing inequality between benders and non-benders and it'll be up to the protagonists to show the people of Republic City that there are ways to solve the issue that don't end in violence or the wiping-out of element-bending.

As much as I don't want to believe that Amon is doing the same kind of Spirit stuff that we saw in the first series, I did notice something.

Having now watched the entire first series for the fifth time time (and this time within about 15 days) I noticed something in the finale.

Spoiler:

Ozai is literally right next to Aang, conscious, when Aang specifically describes how he learned Spirit-Bending. Aang says allowed how it was taught to him by the Giant Lion Turtle. So really, Ozai should have this information. What he did with it I have no idea, but the fact remains that Aang shared that information with Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Ozai.

As much as I don't want to believe that Amon is doing the same kind of Spirit stuff that we saw in the first series, I did notice something.

Having now watched the entire first series for the fifth time time (and this time within about 15 days) I noticed something in the finale.

Spoiler:

Ozai is literally right next to Aang, conscious, when Aang specifically describes how he learned Spirit-Bending. Aang says allowed how it was taught to him by the Giant Lion Turtle. So really, Ozai should have this information. What he did with it I have no idea, but the fact remains that Aang shared that information with Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Ozai.

So?

Telling people something doesn't mean they'll magically learn how to do it.

As much as I don't want to believe that Amon is doing the same kind of Spirit stuff that we saw in the first series, I did notice something.

Having now watched the entire first series for the fifth time time (and this time within about 15 days) I noticed something in the finale.

Spoiler:

Ozai is literally right next to Aang, conscious, when Aang specifically describes how he learned Spirit-Bending. Aang says allowed how it was taught to him by the Giant Lion Turtle. So really, Ozai should have this information. What he did with it I have no idea, but the fact remains that Aang shared that information with Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Ozai.

So?

Telling people something doesn't mean they'll magically learn how to do it.

I'm not saying Ozai learned how to do it, but he now knows where to look, and can share that information. Give some idealist a goal and it wouldn't be impossible to find.

As much as I don't want to believe that Amon is doing the same kind of Spirit stuff that we saw in the first series, I did notice something.

Having now watched the entire first series for the fifth time time (and this time within about 15 days) I noticed something in the finale.

Spoiler:

Ozai is literally right next to Aang, conscious, when Aang specifically describes how he learned Spirit-Bending. Aang says allowed how it was taught to him by the Giant Lion Turtle. So really, Ozai should have this information. What he did with it I have no idea, but the fact remains that Aang shared that information with Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Ozai.

So?

Telling people something doesn't mean they'll magically learn how to do it.

I'm not saying Ozai learned how to do it, but he now knows where to look, and can share that information. Give some idealist a goal and it wouldn't be impossible to find.

It IS impossible to find. The turtle is impossible to track and sentient. I don't think he's teaching anyone anything unless he wants to.

ty lee and mai learned their skills at the royal firebending academy for girls, probably not a lot of commoners in there

and sokka spent most of the series at a combat disadvantage until he got a few lessons from the greatest swordfighter in the world

these are not advantages available to common people

it is ridiculous to say that these three outliers invalidate the idea that benders have a huge advantage in combat and use it

Sokka had some training from the Kyoshi warriors as well.
That didn't help much though. Mainly because his adversaries after that tended to be "super bad ass warriors" (like Azulas Angels, Combustion Man etc).

If we're going to demonstrate how weak non-bending is compared to bending. As the Blue Spirit Zuko kicked the ass of about a dozen fire warrior soldiers. Later in Zuko Alone he got his ass kicked by a single earthbending thug until he decided to go all "I am Prince Zuko of the fire nation Fear my wrath! RAAAR!".